Target: Richard Fordyce, Administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency

Goal: Stop euthanizing healthy farm animals in response to COVID-19.

“Millions of animals —chickens, pigs and cattle— will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities.” The word “depopulated,” used by a Tyson executive in the above statement about operating plant shutdowns, is in reality a nicer, cleaner term for killing. This tragic fate may await countless farm animals across the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of farm animals is growing exponentially, with livestock normally shipped off to now-closed processing facilities remaining at farms. Much like has occurred with the dumping of milk and eradication of crops, many farms are mulling getting rid of their “excess supply” of animals. In Minnesota alone, 200,000 pigs could be put down in the coming weeks if facilities remain closed. Pigs are actively being experimented upon in the race for a COVID-19 vaccine. If the country is willing to use the animals to save human lives, then more should be done to spare the lives of these innocent living beings.

Sign this petition to save farm animals from becoming the latest preventable casualties of the coronavirus crisis.

PETITOIN LETTER:

Dear Mr. Fordyce,

The reports coming out of states like Minnesota and Iowa are deeply disturbing: farmers considering euthanizing hundreds of thousands of perfectly healthy farm animals. When did this horrific form of mass extermination—or “depopulation,” as some call it—become an acceptable practice in the United States? During such a wide-ranging crisis, every measure should be taken to save lives, not deliberately end them.

Do not leave farmers nationwide to make this cruel choice. Alleviate the burden by purchasing more of these animals. More importantly, please devise and follow through on a program that will liberate these defenseless innocents from a premature, tragic fate.